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allright, so here's the deal. i got a new imac, and decided to install windows 7 in another partition so i could play games. bad idea for me. something went wrong somewhere, and my mac osx partition ended up being corrupt or something while the newly installed windows one was fine. not sure how it happened, lol. half the time when i would pick my mac osx partition, it would work, and half the time, it wouldn't even start. eventually it irritated me so much that I backed up everything, and then i deleted the entire partition using my friends mac osx repair cd... but i wasn't able to install mac osx because the cd was the one that came with HIS mac unfortionately... lol

so, i ended up ordering a copy of my repair cds from apple (i had lost mine), and now that they are here, i tried firing them up. holding down Option brings up my Windows partition, and the repair cd, but every time I click the repair cd, it just boots into windows instead. I've tried resetting the PRAM, but not the other thing (where you unplug your mac for a bit), i think i'll try that next, although I don't think it will make a difference. was deleting/formatting my non-working macosx partition with my friends repair disc a bad idea? i hope to god that's not the reason my own repair disc won't properly boot now.... what should I do? I've also tried holding down C when I boot, which just brings me to a screen to choose an OS to start from (with of course Windows 7 being the only one).

Not a real positive thought, but did you install Windows 7 through Boot Camp or did you just set up another partition and try to install Windows 7 to it from a Windows install disk? If the later is the case, Windows is notorious for modifying the mbr and creating its own hidden partition which prevents other OS's from booting.

Not a real positive thought, but did you install Windows 7 through Boot Camp or did you just set up another partition and try to install Windows 7 to it from a Windows install disk? If the later is the case, Windows is notorious for modifying the mbr and creating its own hidden partition which prevents other OS's from booting.

I created a new partition and installed through a windows install disk, and then I used bootcamp to install the drivers but got an error. However Windows pretty much worked fine (i'm using it now to post)... but yeah it has seemed to killed my Mac. And when I try to boot into the Mac OSX Install DVD, it always loads Windows 7 instead. The Mac OSX DVD for some reason shows up as "EFI Boot".... is there any reason for this? Is it because it's a replacement I ordered from Apple?

Thank you very much for the reply though.... I'm kind of desperate. All I want to do is just wipe the whole computer and put OSX back on it, but I can't even seem to do that. I have all my stuff backed up, so I have nothing to loose, besides the insanity this is causing me. lol

I created a new partition and installed through a windows install disk, and then I used bootcamp to install the drivers but got an error. However Windows pretty much worked fine (i'm using it now to post)... but yeah it has seemed to killed my Mac. And when I try to boot into the Mac OSX Install DVD, it always loads Windows 7 instead. The Mac OSX DVD for some reason shows up as "EFI Boot".... is there any reason for this? Is it because it's a replacement I ordered from Apple?

Thank you very much for the reply though.... I'm kind of desperate. All I want to do is just wipe the whole computer and put OSX back on it, but I can't even seem to do that. I have all my stuff backed up, so I have nothing to loose, besides the insanity this is causing me. lol

As a last resort you could always install a new HD so it isn't hopeless. We have some sharp tech guys here and I'm pretty sure one of them can help.

I've always wanted to be smart, handsome and modest. But, I guess I'll have to be satisfied with two out of three . . .

As a last resort you could always install a new HD so it isn't hopeless. We have some sharp tech guys here and I'm pretty sure one of them can help.

very true. this imac was expensive and it's pretty much new so i'd probably do that if it came to it. but its so strange because usually the "last resort" is supposed to be wiping your hard drive and loosing your data... and yet I can't even do that! haha.

How about this - boot from the Windows Install CD. I am pretty sure there is an option to go to utilities. Delete all partitions on the drive, but do not install Windows or do any formatting. Then boot from the OS disk and install it. I think that should work. Hopefully some Mac experts can chime in here as well.

How about this - boot from the Windows Install CD. I am pretty sure there is an option to go to utilities. Delete all partitions on the drive, but do not install Windows or do any formatting. Then boot from the OS disk and install it. I think that should work. Hopefully some Mac experts can chime in here as well.

OK, I think I will try that. When I delete the partitions, is there like a certain format they (or I guess "it") should be in already? In case I have changed them or something somewhere I just would want to make sure I have them in the correct format for Mac OSX when I delete everything.

And I think I'll try this after a while, but I'll wait first to see if any other users reply with another suggestion. I'm afraid now of installing/removing any OS from this computer because I can't seem to ever reverse anything I do.

If the disk is empty, I think the install will prompt you for a partition scheme and will format the partition you choose for the install correctly. If you do have to choose a type it is Mac OS Extended journaled.

There must be some more knowledgeable people out there that could lend a hand?

If you don't get any help in the next day or so I'll try PMing a couple of the guys on your behalf to see if they have any ideas.

Thank you very much, that would be greatly appreciated at this point. Apple is trying to get me to pay 50 bucks just to talk to me when I called them today. Wow.. I just hung up on them.

Anyways..

So I was able to erase all partitions and wipe everything clean on my iMac's hard drive booting from my Windows Install DVD. But now when I select the OS X Installation CD from the boot menu (which still comes up as "EFI Boot" for some reason), it just goes to a black screen with a white flashing cursor.

Also, when I run verbose mode (by hitting command + v when I boot), I get this error:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3676

So... according to the apple website.. does that mean the replacement disks they sent me are not the correct version of OS X? How do I know what version to use? I gave them my serial number so supposedly these are the disks for MY iMac...

And I know my iMac can boot from other DVD's, so the drive seems to be working...

Did the computer have Lion preinstalled? If so, are you able to get into the recovery partition by holding the Command-R keys at boot up? You may be able to launch Disk Utility, repartition the drive, and download and reinstall Lion from that.

Setting up a Windows partition is best done through the Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder. Manually creating a partition just doesn't work as well.

Did the computer have Lion preinstalled? If so, are you able to get into the recovery partition by holding the Command-R keys at boot up? You may be able to launch Disk Utility, repartition the drive, and download and reinstall Lion from that.

Setting up a Windows partition is best done through the Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder. Manually creating a partition just doesn't work as well.

Hey, no it did not have Lion preinstalled, it had OS X 10.6.4.

I've also tried installing Linux from a USB, which brought me to a screen to choose to install it, but then after I select to install, gives me a blank screen.

DiskWarrior on a USB doesn't work either. I select it, and absolutely nothing happens. Just like those restore disks. I've told Apple they may have sent me the wrong Restore DVD replacements (to which they responded that they did not), and I made them send them again for free. Basically I'll try that, and then if that doesn't work I'm going to try Lion on a USB and see if that works, but if it doesn't, then...... well ****. I will probably make a trip to the Apple store, and then NEVER INSTALL WINDOWS 7 AGAIN. or in fact try to partition or do any sort of thing like that. I thought I was tech-savy, but I'm apparently in way over my head here. I don't mind loosing data. But if I can't even install an OS on my computer which is blank at the moment... this is insane. I must have some sort of weird unique problem I created on my iMac. Seems like a completely blank hard drive should be more than accepting of an OS but I guess not. I just can't get the **** thing to boot anything.

Anyways, I'll post back to let you guys know what happens. Could be of help to someone else in the future.